e.Bulletin

e.Bulletin for October 2012

I am so pleased to report that we exceeded by nearly two-fold our goal of 100 class rooms on Constitution Day, September 17th. Our 174 volunteers taught 193 lessons to classrooms, assemblies, and community youth councils in 15 counties statewide. We estimate that over 15,000 students were able to receive this valuable information about our system of government and the part they can play in its evolution, growth, and stability. We greatly appreciate the volunteer judges, attorneys, and law school students who shared their knowledge and experience with the children in our communities. The time these volunteers graciously gave will benefit us and our society exponentially. We also want to thank the teachers who invited members of the Bar into their classrooms and we hope that the experience their students had with our Constitution program demonstrated our commitment to the education of our children. Rusty Taylor, Principal at Desert Hills High School in St. George sent a note in gratitude to one of the attorneys who taught at his school, saying “Community support for education is essential if we want to accomplish our goals with our students.” We agree!

Our Constitution Day kick-off had a built-in bonus for us, too. Attorney volunteers had a great time! One lawyer wrote in, “(d)one teaching 7 classes. At least I can say there are some two or three-hundred students who are a little less confused about the Constitution, Separation of Powers, and what lawyers really do for a living. If you need any help like this in the future, let me know – I’d do it again.” This is good to hear because we do plan to call on our volunteers again and we are asking for more Utah lawyers to join in. Hopefully having attorneys in classrooms on Constitution Day will become an annual event. We have invited teachers whose students have not yet heard our lesson to allow us to come into their classrooms sometime in the coming year, when our materials on the Constitution may fit into their planned curriculum. If you would like to join our list of volunteers or, if you know a teacher who would like to have us visit their students, please link to http://www.utahbar.org/highschoolcivics/welcome.html. Read more about the success of the Utah State Bar Constitution program at http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home3/54883608-200/constitution-students-government-percent.html.csp.

October 2012 E-News

2012 Fall Forum

Blomquist Hale, Lawyers Helping Lawyers and other Member Benefits

Utah Celebrates Pro Bono

Check out the numerous CLE seminar offerings through the Utah State Bar CLE Department

2012 Fall Forum – Please make plans to join us at the Fall Forum the evening of Thursday, November 8th, and all day Friday, the 9th, at the Little America Hotel. On Thursday evening, Ellyn S. Rosen, Counsel to the ABA Standing Committee on Professional Discipline will speak with us. The committee was designed to assist the judiciary and the bar in the development, coordination, and strengthening of disciplinary enforcement throughout the United States, including the assessment of the regulatory ramifications of global legal practice developments. Professor Jeffrey J. Rachlinski willbe our keynote speaker on Friday on implicit bias. Professor Rachlinski holds a B.A. and an M.A. in psychology from the Johns Hopkins University, a J.D. from Stanford Law School, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from Stanford. The research he will share with us primarily involves the application of cognitive and social psychology to law with special attention to judicial decision making. The Fall Forum offers 8 hours CLE, including up to 2 hours of Professionalism and Civility credit and up to 5 hours of Ethics credit. Click here for a full Fall Forum schedule: http://www.utahbar.org/cle/fallforum/Welcome.html. To register, please click here: https://utahbar.org/cle/fallforum/2012_ff_registration.html. Thanks to our Fall Forum Committee Co-chairs, Susan B. Peterson and Richard M. Hartvigsen for their excellent work.Blomquist Hale, Lawyers Helping Lawyers and other Member Benefits – If you or members of your family are struggling with issues of stress, anxiety, depression, drug or alcohol dependency, personal financial management difficulties or eldercare challenges, you have the free professional counseling services from Blomquist Hale Consulting and experienced peer to peer counseling from Utah Lawyers Helping Lawyers available to assist you. The Bar’s Member Benefits provides a broad spectrum of services to its members, from practice management tools, litigation support, technology solutions, to insurance products. The Bar wants to help provide the tools to confront the unique set of challenges lawyers face. The Member Resource Committee (Robert L. Jeffs, Chair) meets regularly to review and promote group benefits Please take advantage of the benefits available to you! A link to group benefits is available at http://www.utahbar.org/members/member_benefits.html.Utah Celebrates Pro Bono – Utah Celebrates Pro Bono week will kick off on October 22th with a special lunchtime event featuring keynote speaker Stewart Ralphs, Executive Director of the Legal Aid Society of Salt Lake City. Stewart has been a faithful participant as a volunteer supervising attorney and supporter of the Pro Bono Initiative’s Family Law Clinic since its inception. Mr. Ralphs is also active in public policy and legislative issues. The event is sponsored by the Utah State Bar, Utah Legal Services, and the S.J. Quinney College of Law, and will start a week celebrating pro bono legal service throughout the state. Please visit the websitehttp://www.utahbar.org/probono/celebrateprobono.html to get the latest information on Celebrate Pro Bono events and to find out how you can get involved.